Unit 2211 Medical Plaza Ortigas

25 San Miguel Avenue, Ortigas Center 1605 Pasig City

Vision

The Freedom Foundation aspires to help create a world order founded on the universal respect for human rights, especially for the right and freedom against arbitrary and unjust imprisonment, in all its forms.

Mission

The Freedom Foundation seeks to put an end to the phenomenon of unjust and inhumane detention, especially of women and children, wherever it is found, by means of direct legal action and intervention.

Goal

The group was issued a Certificate of Incorporation by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission under Company Registration Number A200202033 on 8 February 2002.

Founders and Officers

The founding members of The Freedom Foundation include:

Grand Master Choa Kok Sui

Atty. Sedfrey Candelaria

Atty. Carolyn Mercado

Atty. Daniel Gorgonia

Atty. Rea Chiongson

Atty. Perfecto G. Caparas II

The Board Members of The Freedom Foundation are the following:

Grand Master Choa Kok Sui - Chairman

Atty. Sedfrey Candelaria - Vice Chairman

Atty. Carolyn Mercado - Secretary

Atty. Daniel Gorgonia - Treasurer

Atty. Rea Chiongson - Public Relations Officer

Staff

The Freedom Foundation enages a lawyer, an administrative staff and volunteer paralegals to carry out its mission.

Beneficiaries

Generally, the beneficiaries are the ones facing charges for victimless offences, like vagrancy, solvent-sniffing, illegal possession or use of regulated drugs, illegal gambling, and illegal possession of firearms or deadly weapons. Unjustly detained persons, particularly those facing property-related offences, who have been in detention over a period equal to or more than the imposable minimum penalty for the offence for which they are being detained, are likewise sought to be released from

imprisonment by The Freedom Foundation.

Prisoners who have already served their sentence or whose probation has already been granted, but nonetheless still languish in jail for one reason or another, are also sought to be helped by The Freedom Foundation.

The Freedom Foundation currently focuses its operations in Quezon City where three detention centers are located: Molave Youth Home (for boys and girls age 10 to 17); Camp Karingal (women); and Qezon City Jail (men).

Accomplishment

Since its inception, The Freedom Foundation was able to secure the release from prison of 15 people, including women and children, detained at the Molave Youth Home and the Quezon City Jail. Last February 26, female inmates from the Quezon City Jail were transferred to the Female Dormitory of Camp Karingal, also in Quezon City.

In cases involving children, The Freedom Foundation coordinates with social workers in order to safeguard their best interests and well-being upon their release from prison. In cases where children cannot be reintegrated with their family, alternative child caring institutions are tapped by The Freedom Foundation to assume custody over the person of the released kids.

Since a large number of inmates are impoverished, virtually all of their cases are handled by the Philippine Public Attorney's Office (PAO), who provides free legal services to indigent litigants. The Freedom Foundation collaborates with PAO lawyers who would continuously provide services to the beneficiaries in case the court grants them temporary liberty while they undergo trial. This way, The Freedom Foundation would be able to focus in the fulfillment of its primary mandate of securing the liberty, whether final or temporary, of detainees, without being saddled with cumbersome trial duties.

Issues and Challenges

Decongestion of the country's cramped and overcrowded jails stands to be one of the main thrusts of The Freedom Foundation. Its work with the prisoners has enabled The Freedom Foundation to become aware of the problems and issues that plague not only prisoners but the country's penal system as well. The following are only some of these concerns encountered by The Freedom Foundation:

1.   congested jails characterized by sub-human living conditions;

2.   scheduling of hearings to a much later date, resulting in the

prolonged incarceration of detainees, due to clogged court dockets;

3.   delay in proceedings occasioned by the transfer or promotion of judges;

4.   delay in the preparation and issuance of judgment and/or release orders;

5.   social bias and prejudice against prisoners who are generally

considered as outcasts;

6.   punitive mindset and approach towards prisoners;

7.   manacling of children on their way to, during, and after their

hearings in violation of the law;

8.   use of nylon cords to manacle inmates in two's or three's on the way to, during, and after their hearings due to lack of handcuffs;

9.   prisoners' ignorance and/or inability to avail of the various modes of securing their temporary liberty pending the trial of their cases;

10. prisoners' ignorance of penal laws and legal proceedings and in most cases even of the status of their own cases;

11. citizens', especially children's, powerlessness in the face of

arrest and police detention;

12. stiff penalties for victimless crimes like drug use and/or

possession, gambling, possession of firearms and/or deadly weapon, as well as for property-related offenses (theft and robbery);

13. child detention remains to be the measure of first resort and for the longest period, contrary to RA 8369 (Family Courts Act of 1997);

14. lack of familial support for child detainees;

15. lack of appropriate treatment for detainees with mental disability;

16. non-availability of any social worker for adult prisoners

17. manual record management system at the Quezon City Jail.

On top of these issues and concerns, detainees also face their own

personal and familial problems. Their prolonged detention has deprived them of their fundamental human right to earn a means of livelihood, thereby affecting their family members as well who rely upon them for sustenance and support.

Detainees also suffer from a poor self-esteem occasioned by their

prolonged imprisonment. They experience social alienation brought about by the stigma of detention.

SUPPORT THE HUMANITARIAN LEGAL ASSISTANCE FOUNDATION

When tithing, please support the Humanitarian Legal Assistance Foundation. You will be assisting unjustly detained persons, particularly children who live in crowded sub-human conditions mixed with adults. The poverty level of most of the children is so low, that they cannot afford legal aid.

If you are interested in forming a similar organization in your area or you wish to tithe to this worthy cause, please contact Boyet at: wphf@iconn.com.ph.

FREEDOM STORIES

17-year old lovers in prison

Through its legal representation before the court, the Freedom

Foundation was able to secure the temporary release from jail of a

17-year old couple who were detained over a three-month period. Their alleged crime: theft of items worth P2,550.00.

The young lovebirds had had to suffer the indignity and cruelty of

prison life, depriving their two-year old child, who was left to the

care of an aunt, of parental love and care during the period of their

incarceration, which included Christmas Day.

The Freedom Foundation, together with their relative, assumed custody over the couple, just to end their imprisonment, pending the trial of their case, and for them to be reunited with their baby.

Free but unfreed

A 23-year old detainee had pleaded guilty to the crime of robbery but, instead of serving his two- to four-year jail term, opted to avail of probation, which should entail his immediate release from detention. Despite the grant of probation, the man continued to languish in jail, until The Freedom Foundation stepped in.

When The Freedom Foundation inquired with the court, it was found out that the former judge would not allow him to be released unless somebody would act as his custodian, to ensure that this probationer would regularly report to his parole officer after his release.

The Probation Law, however, does not impose this as a requisite for the grant of probation. Hence, The Freedom Foundation immediately prepared and filed a Motion for Immediate Release of Accused-Probationer. During the hearing that was also attended by the detainee, the pairing judge granted the motion without much ado.

Before he approached The Freedom Foundation for assistance, the detainee had already languished in jail for four months more following the grant of his probation, on top of his seven-month imprisonment beginning with his arrest.

Another jail bird

Here is a person who merely became a hapless victim of circumstances. Arrested simply for the crime of possessing an 11-inch icepick, this 23-year old man had had to spend five months in detention, despite his plea of guilt before the court who had sentenced him to a mere 20-day imprisonment.

Instead of being released after serving six more days in prison (he had confessed his guilt 14 days after his arrest for violating the city ordinance), the man had to endure four more months of prison life simply because his name was mistakenly typewritten as the accused in a robbery case involving an entirely different person!

Realizing this injustice, the prosecution immediately sought to drop his name from the case, prompting the judge to order his release two months after his arrest.

The order was served upon the jail authorities.

However, days, weeks, and months passed, without the jail bird seeing the dawn of freedom.

Nobody was attending to the poor guy.

After he sought out help, The Freedom Foundation immediately sifted through the files from the two courts where the two separate cases had been lodged.

The Freedom Foundation prepared a certification that he has no pending case before the court where the wrong information containing his name had been filed and had the certification signed by the clerk of court. (Actually, this is superfluous since the release order had already been given earlier to the jail authorities.)    

The Freedom Foundation wrote and sent a letter to the jail warden, narrating the facts of his case, as corroborated by the records secured from the jail's record section itself, together with the certification. The Freedom Foundation personally met with the jail warden, who immediately ordered that his records be checked.

Only then was the jail bird set free.

In his talk with The Freedom Foundation, the boy admits to being a mere kibitzer of the gambling game held at a public place. [His later "act" of entering a plea of guilt to the crime of illegal gambling just to secure his immediate liberty can be considered debatable on the issues of morality and expediency and of children's rights vis-à-vis reality. Other factors that may be looked into include the extent and limitations of The Freedom Foundation's involvement in child rights cases vis-à-vis reality involving several players.]

In an interview with The Freedom Foundation at the jail, the boy gave an account of his life as a street child-cum-laborer, working as a barker for passenger jeepneys. An elder sister also plies the streets doing odd jobs. He admits to being a tattooed member of a street gang.

The social worker echoed to The Freedom Foundation the problem of the child's cramped dwelling place aggravated by the lack of electricity as a major factor why the boy opts to stay out most of the time.

During detention, the boy was diagnosed as suffering from a chronic heart failure, rheumatic heart disease, and viral hepatitis A. He has been twice hospitalised and put under the care of the medical staff at the jail. No doubt his continued detention aggravates his health complications. The jail lacks proper ventilation.

Unfortunately, his case was set for arraignment two months from the date of their arrest.

After being referred by a social worker, The Freedom Foundation promptly asked the court for an earlier setting of his case as well as to allow his mother to assume custody over his person pending the trial of the case by means of an application for release on recognizance. It was The Freedom Foundation who has to deliver the order for the two other men at their detention cell upon the request of the court staff just to ensure that the arraignment would push through at the much earlier date sought by The Freedom Foundation.

The Freedom Foundation immediately cited the poor health of the boy as a ground for him to be allowed to be released on recognizance. Undeniably, the child, who was tubercular, was in a poor state of health. It was decided that the child would have to enter a plea of guilt and avail of a suspended sentence just to secure his immediate release. The Freedom Foundation consulted the boy, his mother, and the social worker concerning the move and all of them agreed.

The prosecutor recommended to the court a sentence of one month imprisonment for the boy. Although he was entitled to a suspended sentence, The Freedom Foundation, nonetheless, had invoked the mitigating circumstance of minority and voluntary plea of guilt in order to secure the best possible terms for the child.

The Freedom Foundation also asked the court to commit the child to the custody of his own mother.

The boy, perhaps with the trauma of having to plead guilty to an offence which he said he did not commit, was ordered to be immediately released to the care of his own mother.

The Freedom Foundation also assisted the two other men who had pleaded guilty to the offence. They were sentenced to two months imprisonment and would have to spend three more weeks in jail.

Ironically, on account of this intervention, the three prisoners had all been set free at a date much earlier than the original schedule for their hearing.